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Poland on Friday risked inflaming tensions with Russia when it released 1,700 highly sensitive Warsaw Pact files, including a war game exercise that envisaged massive nuclear destruction in western Europe and Poland. The new conservative government in Warsaw wants Poland to deal more firmly with its communist past, and Friday’s opening of military files shows it is prepared to incur Moscow’s wrath and confront those Poles who worked closely with the Soviet Union. Warsaw has already protested to Moscow over plans to build a new Russo-German gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea that bypasses Poland, and over Russian restrictions on...

he nightmare of nuclear war in Europe - a spectre that haunted the world for half a century - stood revealed yesterday in terrible detail. In a historic break with the past, Poland's newly elected government threw open its top secret Warsaw Pact military archives - including a 1979 map revealing the Soviet bloc's vision of a seven-day atomic holocaust between Nato and Warsaw Pact forces. The defence minister, Radek Sikorsky, showed off the map at an emotional press conference. He described it as a "personally shattering experience", pointing to a long line of nuclear mushroom clouds neatly stamped along...

Tony Blair is facing a political backlash over his decision to order a new generation of nuclear weapons to replace the ageing Trident fleet at a cost of billions of pounds. Rebel Labour MPs will meet tomorrow to coordinate their fight against his plans, which seem set to provoke one of the biggest shows of opposition to Mr Blair from inside his own party since the start of the Iraq war. Opposition to an updated version of Trident goes far beyond MPs who object to nuclear weapons on principle. It includes senior figures in the military, who question whether this...

Strongman sorry for Prague Spring From correspondents in Prague August 22, 2005 FORMER Polish communist strongman, Wojciech Jaruzelski, has apologised to the Czech Republic and Slovakia for Poland's role in the Soviet-led invasion in August 1968 that crushed a pro-democracy movement. "I have felt bad, I have been tormented by that," said Jaruzelski during a broadcast on Czech public television, 37 years to the day after the invasion of then Czechoslovakia. Troops from the Soviet Union and four former Warsaw Pact countries squashed the so-called "Prague Spring", a movement led by Slovak reformer Alexander Dubcek that tried to put "a...

What was most surprising about the papers? These military plans and after-action reports show how unrealistic the Soviets were in planning for conflicts that included nuclear launches. Military planners assumed that cities like Munich, Vienna, and other major urban centers would be obliterated by nuclear weapons, yet within a matter of days they assumed that Warsaw Pact forces would be able to sweep through those areas with no ill effects. It's very clear that they completely glossed over the reality of what it would mean to be marching through a nuclear wasteland. It's only in 1987--after the Chernobyl accident--that a...

Payouts due for Prague victims Soviet tanks remained in Czechoslovakia until 1991 Victims of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia are to receive compensation from the Czech government. President Vaclav Klaus approved a law allowing descendants of those killed to ask for a one-off payment of up to 150,000 koruna (£3,400 or 5,000 euros). Those injured or raped by members of the invading armies between 20 August 1968 and 27 June 1991 can claim around 70,000 koruna (£1,587 or 2,331 euros). The 1968 invasion put an abrupt end to the "Prague Spring" liberal reforms. Moscow feared liberalisation in Czechoslovakia would...

The Warsaw Pact, gone with a whimper Malcolm Byrne and Vojtech Mastny International Herald Tribune SATURDAY, MAY 14, 2005 Fifty years ago, with great fanfare in the Soviet bloc, the Warsaw Pact came into being. During its 36 years, it became one of the most feared military machines in history, the embodiment of international Communist aggression, and the sword of Damocles threatening World War III. But fearsome as it appeared in the eyes of the West - and indeed in the experiences of millions of citizens of the Communist countries - was the Warsaw Pact ultimately as dangerous as its...

RIGA, Latvia -- As the president of a country that suffered immensely under Soviet and Nazi rule, I recently faced a dilemma. I had to decide whether to accept an invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend a rally in Moscow on Monday. That is the date when Russia traditionally celebrates its military victory over Nazi Germany, and this year is particularly significant, as it marks the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Numerous heads of state and government, including George W. Bush, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroeder and Silvio Berlusconi, had already said they...

...Even during ongoing military campaigns, Mr. Rumsfeld never wavered from his transformational objectives.... Mr. Rumsfeld, with the brilliant leadership of General Schoomaker, was able to move personnel from noncombat to combat units, enabling them with additional reorganization to create 15 newly restructured combat brigades. Also, because of Mr. Rumsfeld's successful plan, our military is more flexible, more agile and better able to fight unconventional enemies. A new civilian personnel system was designed to reward merit, reduce force stress and replace a bureaucratic culture of risk aversion with one of innovation. Moreover, he was able to move military personnel out of...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Was Reagan the 1st neoconservative? Posted: June 14, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc. Would Ronald Reagan have invaded Iraq? Would he have declared a doctrine of preventive war to keep any rival nation from rising to where it might challenge us? Would he have crusaded for "world democratic revolution"? Was Reagan the first neoconservative? This claim has been entered in the wake of his death. Yet, it seems bogus, a patent forgery, a fabricated claim to the Reagan legacy, worked up in the same shop where they made the documents proving Saddam was buying up all...

<p>LONDON &#8212; The heroes of Eastern Europe's anti-communist movement denounced Fidel Castro's "Stalinist" regime in Cuba yesterday and demanded action from the West to encourage its peaceful overthrow.</p> <p>Former Polish President Lech Walesa, former Czech President Vaclav Havel and former Hungarian President Arpad Goncz made their call in a letter to the Daily Telegraph and several other leading European newspapers.</p>

Last fall, as the United States rumbled toward war against Saddam Hussein, literary reviews and higher-brow magazines wrestled with an intriguing if unlikely hypothetical: What would George Orwell say if he were here today? Christopher Hitchens, the fire-breathing British journalist who kick-started the discussion with his book Why Orwell Matters, suggested that a contemporary Eric Blair "would have seen straight through the characters who chant ‘No War On Iraq’" and helped the rest of us to "develop the fiber to call Al-Qaeda what it actually is." Washington Post book reviewer George Scialabba stated confidently that "Orwell would associate himself with...

BERLIN -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's blast against what he called ''old Europe'' allies puts an edge on what's been happening anyway: The U.S. military is relying more on central and eastern Europe. Training of Iraqi rebels that began over the weekend in Hungary is the latest example. From training sites to air bases, former Warsaw Pact nations are increasingly important to U.S. military operations. Rumsfeld's ''old Europe'' jibe came during a recent meeting with international journalists. When questioned about the apparent split between the United States and two major allies over the U.S. push to invade Iraq, he said...

Excerpted from ... The Literature of Intelligence:A Bibliography of Materials,with Essays, Reviews, and CommentsJ. Ransom ClarkVice President for AdministrationMuskingum College The Common European Home The slogan of the quot;Common European Homequot; was actually put forward as early as November 23, 1981 by CPSU General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev in a speech in Bonn, West Germany. Mikhail Gorbachev made it a key principle of Soviet foreign policy in a major speech in Prague in April 1986. As with many of the slogans of quot;new thinking,quot; the details of what the Soviets understood the quot;Common European Homequot; to mean were not explicitly stated....